Nigeria Fail to Keep to Gas Delivery Deadline

Nigeria has once again failed to keep the October 2008 deadline for the delivery of free gas to Ghana, Togo and Benin Republic under the West African Gas Pipeline project.

The project, which is hoped to help generate an estimated 3,000 mega watts of power, was conceptualised to utilise some of the gas flared in Nigeria for power generation in Ghana, Togo and Benin.

Speaking in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Wednesday, the Chief Operating Officer, West African Gas Pipeline Authority, Mr. Magbonde Leonce, confirmed that Nigeria failed to keep the delivery date, which was fixed for October after many failed deadlines.

He, however, declined to give further details on why the deadline was not met.

Meanwhile, the Pipeline Budget Coordinator, the Nigerian Gas Company, Mr. Sam Ndukwe, told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry conference that “the 687 kilometers pipeline estimated at $635m is expected to complement the West African Power Pool project, which plans to develop hydro facilities around the region.

Leonce had stated in September at a workshop on commercial framework for energy investment in Accra, Ghana, that the WAGP onshore pipeline running from Lagos in Nigeria to Takoradi Ghana, had been completed.

He had indicated that the Takoradi reception facility had been completed to receive gas from WAGP and was ready for inauguration in June 2008, before it was discovered that the gas had too much water and other impurities, which had to be processed to the required specification of WAGP.

Leonce had explained that the gas supplied to WAGP was a mixture of the production from Shell and Chevron.

He said that it was the supply by Shell from its Otorogu plant that had high level of water and other impurities, compared to the dry gas provided by Chevron from its Escravos plant, which was the required specification.

He said, “When we first mixed the gas from Chevron and Shell, we got 25 pounds per million British Thermal Unit. Shell has been working on a facility to improve the quality of its gas and that greatly reduced the impurity level. When we tested the mixture again at Itoki, it was good enough for WAGP.

“But when it was passed through the Escravos Pipeline, the impurity level increased to 11 pounds per million btu.”

Leonce blamed the renewed impurity level of the gas on the EPC pipeline, which he said was lined with dust and other impurities.

He stressed that there was a need to pig the pipeline again to reduce the impurities, adding that the process would run until the end of September.

According to him, the pigging should have been completed by September and the specification met so that the introduction of gas to the WAGP can begin and the Takoradi facility can start receiving gas from October.

However, fears of the participants at the conference that Nigeria may continue to shift the delivery date for ever seem set to be playing out.

The participants feared that Nigeria might be delaying the delivery of gas to meet the country’s need for power generation first.

Leonce also explained that “to deliver gas, we need to construct a compressor station in Lagos . The pipeline is ready, but the compressor is not. The free flow of gas does not need a compressor. The pressure of the EPC is 40 bars and can allow for the delivery of about 30 million cubic feet a day to Takoradi.

He had explained that the West African Gas Pipeline Authority recently contracted two firms, DBN and Zakeem, to complete the compressor of WAGP and the outstanding onshore pipeline running across Benin, Togo and Ghana.

According to him, DBN and Zakeem were hired after Wilbros, the original contractor, abandoned the compressor project in January 2008 after asking for unreasonable funds.

Author: Jo Amey